Lara always dreamed of learning how to make pasta and being on a cooking show. In this episode of Bucket List Bandits, we bring both dreams to life with the help of Chef Ka, a world-trained chef known for blending cultures through food.
Watch as Lara learns to make homemade pasta from scratch, experiences life on set, and lives out her bucket list dream. Subscribe to follow more inspiring stories where we turn real people’s dreams into reality.
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soft like a pillow. In our mission to make bucket list dreams come true, we met Lara and she told us her biggest bucket list dream was making pasta and being on a cooking show. So, for the first time, we decided to do two in one. And luckily, we had Chef Ka to make this happen. Now, you might be thinking, wait, a Chinese chef teaching pasta? Why not an Italian? Well, Chef Ka isn’t just an ordinary chef. He spent years perfecting global cuisines, trained in some of the top kitchens, and built a name for being one of the best pasta maker in the industry. So, we prepped the set, fire up the cameras, and kicked off our new brand cooking show. So, here I am trying to make my dream come true. Oh, wait. We need a name for the show, right? Welcome to Denim’s Kitchen. The first dish we’re going to make is with porchini cream and roasted mushrooms. I love. All right, Laura. First things first, we’re going to make parm. So, you want to add some olive oil. That’s it. Some garlic. Mhm. Slice onions. How many times have you made this dish before? At least 100 times. Really big batches. This is like baby. So, you want to cook the onions just a little soft. Good rule of thumb, keep it low and slow. So, originally the sauce should be white cuz it’s parmesan cream. Cream is white. If you burn it, the taste will be bitter. And when it’s bitter, it’s it belongs in the garbage. Yeah, I I’ve done that before. So now we’re going to add some salt because when you make a sauce, when you’re sautéing the vegetables, that’s when you should add the salt. When the salt reduces in the vegetable, it brings out the caramelization. Mhm. Nice. Yeah. Add some much. Now we add the water. [Music] Okay. Smells good. So now we’re going to make caramelized onions. So you want to start with adding olive oil. Okay. So, now we want to wait for the oil to heat up. Cool. Cuz you want that initial sizzle. Like Mhm. If you don’t hear that, then you’re just cooking from cold and it’s going to be watery. Question is, do you wait for the pan to heat up before putting the oil or do you put the oil and then wait for the oil to heat up? Uh, for caramelized, it doesn’t really matter. No. Okay. If you’re cooking meats, if you’re cooking meats like steak, however, I would wait till the pan is hot and then you add the oil. But you don’t cook meat with olive oil because olive oil turns bitter. Right. Right. Right. Right. So I lost my argument. Okay. Another way to tell if oil is hot. Mhm. So it’s getting runnier. Yeah. Cuz oil is more solidified. Right. People say splash water in the oil to check if it’s hot. Do not do that. No. You’re going to create a fire. Right. I don’t want to do that. Yeah. All right. You hear that sizzle? I did hear that sizzle. So that’s what we want when you’re making a parmesan. So while this is cooking, we’re going to work on something else. We’re going to strain this. Okay. So this is porchini base. Mhm. It consists of dry porchini, chantel, morel, all the exotic mushrooms, and then the herbs, of course, rosemary, thyme, smells so good. So this is what you want in your mushroom soup. Next, so this is done simmering. They just with the palm cream, right? So now I’m going to blend. I’m going to buzz the uh sauce. Cool. And I’m going to slowly add the palm as I blend it. When cream gets colder, it gets thicker. Yeah. So don’t don’t stress out if it’s not thickened here. Not runny. However, you want it slightly thick, but you don’t want it too thick. So next, we’re going to make the pochini cream. Cool. So first things first to cut some mushrooms. So now you want to add the olive oil. Now you want to add half of the mushrooms, please. You hear that sizzle? [Music] Two pinches, please squeeze. I love time. All right, Laura. So, now we’re going to make a ricotta yoki. You excited? So excited. Yes. Best part. Good story. This is my daughter’s favorite uh dish. First, let’s uh scoop the ricotta into the bowl, please. You always want to start on a speed blend. One. So, you want a little higher, but you want to fluff the ricotta. Add fresh nutmeg. My mom loves that one. So now after everything’s mixed, we’re going to fold in the flour. Cool. So this is the uh eggs, parm, ricotta, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Yum. So now I like to make a well. A well like this fold in the flour. Dot it with your fingers. [Music] Look at that. All right. So now to text to test the texture of the dough, you should have your hand just touching it. It should be tacky but not sticky. M. You see what I mean? Nice. I see that. So now we’re going to cover it. Okay. And then we’re going to let it rest for at least 10 minutes. 10 minutes. And while we while we wait for that, we’re going to finish the porchini cream. Cool. Let’s do it. Mushrooms are uh roasted. Yeah, they look good. Now we’re going to add the caramel. Sounds good. Oh, I could just eat this plain. Add the uh liquid. All of it. All of it. Now, let’s do it. Okay. So, the dough is is uh rested. So, what you want to do now, you want to break it up into uh quarters. Quarters so it’s easier to uh manage. Just cut it like that. It’s a cutting cake. So, see how the dough is. Looks so good. So, you want to dust the board one more time. Okay. So, we’re going to be rolling into cigars. Nice. And cut into pillow size. I’m so excited. Sometimes if it’s too much flour on the board, it makes it harder to roll. Mhm. So you want to start from the middle and push your way out to the sides. So you see how it’s getting too long hard, too hard to handle. Then you break into a small piece. You line it up like this about um an inch thick. Okay? Like that. So the reason why I push it forward because if you just do straight down, it will compress it into one ball again. So when you push it, you’re kind of pushing it away and then it’s also um incorporating more flour in between so it’s more looser. Beautiful. Yeah. Now we’re next we’re going to cut some mushrooms just in half. It looks nice and easy. Nice and easy. Mushrooms. Now you want to add in the mushrooms, please. Sauté. You want to start with the pepper? Yeah. All righty. With the salt, the thyme. So, now we have water here for We’re going to use it to blanch the we made earlier. Okay. So, now do you want to add the seasoning? Yeah. So, when you when you cook pasta, this the water should be as salty as the tea. My workout for the day. Maybe. Now, we’re going to make the sauce. I would add two to one because this is very strong. Got it. [Music] Yum. [Music] There’s a name for that technique. This one? Yeah. Uh, it’s mostly uh just stirring. Just stirring. It’s just stirring. But don’t use don’t use don’t use a spoon like this cuz you’re getting the metal into the sauce. We’re going to call it denim stirring cuz cuz we need it. So since the inki is freshly made. Yep. They don’t take too long to cook. As soon as they float. As soon as they float. Yeah. Now you want to grab the inokei. Throw it in there. With my hands. So you can just slide it in. Yeah. A little bit lower so the water doesn’t splash. Yeah. Just let it just let it rise. Let it let it burn. All right. The Yoki split. And what do we do? We take it out. Yeah. There. Oh They’re right inside. Yeah. Look at that. Beautiful. All right. Let’s do a taste test. It’s going to be hot, right? Yeah. Just careful. Oh my god. Yum. It’s good. That’s so good. Taste the porchini. I taste everything. Ready to plate. Good. Moment of truth. Mhm. Look at that sauce. [Music] Use your hand. Sprinkle wherever you want. More generous. Yeah, that was actually perfect. That was perfect. Uh-huh. Cheers. What’s the perfect bite? Just one sauce, noki, mushroom, everything with para, of course. We’re going to do it at the same time. All right. One, two, three. Soft like a pillow. That’s what you want. That is actually insane. That is so good. It just melts in my mouth. Boom. All thanks to him. Rotany potato cuz this is good. All right, let’s go to the next dish. All right, for this next dish, we’re making a spring summer light pasta. The same uh ricotta we used earlier. Mushroom. Love it. Uh this dish is super simple. Let’s add the salt into the boiling water. You add the snap peas and then half of the zucchini. We’re going to blanch the Yeah. Slide it in carefully. So, as this pan gets hot, so you want to add the olive oil. Just lightly blanched. So, that’s it. So, you want to bring it into plate like that. So, the reason why we do it this method, you do not want to add it directly to the hot oil. Wow. Sauté. Sauté. And now we’re going to add butter. We’re going to add a little bit of the pasta water. See how it’s getting thicker? Yeah. That’s because of the starch from the water is acting with the butter. Yeah. Let’s take out the from the water. [Music] That looks so fresh. So, you want to keep emulsifying? Yeah, let’s do it. You want to add two pinches of parm parm parm? Yep. Beautiful. Practice with rice. So, you see the creaminess? Yeah. See the creaminess? All right, Laura, you take this one. Let’s do it. All right. Am I just dripping it from the pan or do I have to like scoop it out? Let’s scoop it out. All right. Let’s scoop it out. Beautiful. Oh, now try to showcase the snap piece. The open pods. I have to put them at top, right? Try not to put it into the center. Maybe go. Sounds good. Wow. [Music] Look at that. Wasn’t that perfect? Yes. Did you guys get that? That was so good. Tada. Oh, I thought you were going to tell me to stop putting. Boom. I love cheese. We all love cheese. So good. Final shot. I need to get one with everything, right? I’m just digging in. Okay, same. Very velvety. It’s insanely cheesing is easy. Mhm. So good. So easy. Yeah, there was nothing. I’ll make it every day. I would make it any day. Any day and every day. I didn’t memorize the recipes. Truly incredible. I mean, this was so out of my comfort zone. So, get out there and take those items off your bucket list. Aside from cooking, my other hobbies are into denim and I love boots. Uh, I also work for Redwing shoes, so that’s my other passion. So, pasta and cooking show, we’re the bucket list bandits. Please tell us what your favorite pasta is, and we love to hear from you. See you guys next time. Bye bye. to try.
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